A Not So Elusive Secret Santa
by Platinum Preta
Summary: Ja'far finds himself receiving gifts from a Secret Santa he never asked for. (A short Secret Santa exchange with my good friend heathersaur. Modern AU. Fluff. The max word count given was 2k, but I will likely expand this idea at a later date.)


Ja'far was perhaps the only person who ever willingly tackled unforgiving Monday mornings, much less a Monday that was wedged between a holiday party the previous day and Christmas Eve the following Tuesday. His coworkers dragged their feet, massaged their temples and took sharp, pained exhales as they pushed through their hangovers in an annoying melody that would have likely driven him mad if it weren't for the fact he had his own office. Breathing a sigh of relief as he closed the door behind him the freckled man approached his desk, setting his briefcase down upon its pristine surface as he took his seat. There was already a small stack of papers on the edge waiting for his review so he reached for the lefthand drawer that contained his small stock of pens and his business Bluetooth. It was a motion he could have preformed in his sleep, one that didn't require sight until something slick met his fingertips instead of the cool metal of his ballpoint pen.

Pale brows rose as his gaze fell upon a small red box, tied in a gold ribbon with a small white tag sticking from the ribbon's curls. Upon closer inspection of the tag he found that it appeared to have come from a 'Secret Santa.' With a small frown he set the box on his desk and approached his office's door.

"Masrur," he gently called for the first person to catch his eye, who was one of his more trusted coworkers and good friend. The redhead only gave him a questioning glance as he came to a stop, but Ja'far took no offense. He wasn't much of a talkative person anyhow.

"Didn't we agree two weeks ago at the employee meeting that we weren't going to have Secret Santa this year?" Money was tight for several of the employees so they had all peacefully agreed to not have it this year and just have the office party the weekend before Christmas instead.

"Yes."

"That's what I thought." Ja'far murmured, casting a sideways glance at the mysterious box on his desk. "Thank you." Masrur simply gave him a nod and went on his way. Ja'far retreated back into his office, making sure he had closed the door securely and then briskly walked back to his desk to retrieve his Bluetooth. Now that he was positive there wasn't some sort of change to the agreement his department had made, there was only one explanation for this.

_Riing…. Riiiing…. Riiing…_

"Hello~?"

Ja'far instantly frowned at the singsong tone that greeted him.

"Don't act coy. You know why I'm calling you, Sin." The distant sound of the man's leather chair squeaking as he likely leaned back into his chair to prop his feet up on his desk (which was very uncouth of the company CEO's presentation but no matter how much Ja'far bickered about the matter Sinbad was adamant to disobey him) made Ja'far's brow twitch, his mind eye envisioning a cunning grin upon the man's face.

"What could you possibly mean? I thought you were just calling to wish me a Merry Christmas." Smooth an suave his voice was, like a dollop of whipped cream on top of a cup of hot chocolate. Now Ja'far _knew_ he was responsible for this.

"You remember just as well as I do that we all agreed we wouldn't be doing Secret Santa this year." Sliding back into his own chair, he thumbed over the box's tag while he waited for a response.

"Of course I remember. You never let me forget anything that's discussed during our meetings."

"Then why did I find a box in my desk addressed from a 'Secret Santa'?"

"I don't know why you would expect me to know the answer to that. Maybe it's just someone who wanted to give you something but was too shy to draw attention to themselves."

"Because I know it was you."

"You haven't even opened it yet, have you?"

"So you admit that it's yours?"

"I never said anything of the sort! Now go on, open it."

Ja'far rolled his eyes towards the ceiling. Surely a man that was resourceful and crafty enough to build his own business empire from the ground up would be better at keeping secrets than this. Sinbad would be the death of him someday, he knew it. He took the box and slid the bow off, vaguely wondering by the box's flatness if it was some kind of jewelry. Gods be damned if Sinbad actually got him something like that. Cautiously he opened the lid and pushed back the thin folds of tissue paper to find, much to his surprise, a couple of green tea bags. The tags on the end of the strings were written in a language he didn't understand, so needless to say it was of the exotic variety.

"Tea?" The pale executive questioned as he continued to look them over.

"And here you are getting bent out of shape over a quality cup of tea." Sinbad chuckled into his ear. "Looks like your Secret Santa has got some good taste."

"Or just knows that I prefer tea over coffee." Ja'far answered flatly.

"That's news to me." Gods, he could practically hear him shrugging.

"Sin, I know it's from you. You can cut the—"

"Oops, I have another call coming in. Enjoy your tea!" And just like that the conversation was over, leaving Ja'far sputtering as he failed to weed the truth from his boss' mouth. With a defeated sigh, he went to go retrieve his mug and fix the tea. Secret Santa or not, a good warm cup of tea would be just the thing to take the edge off the morning chill that still clung to his bones. Hopefully that would be the end of it.

Oh, but it wasn't.

No, there was more. Through the course of the day Ja'far stumbled upon three more gifts scattered throughout the office that were addressed to him from a 'Secret Santa.' The second one he had found in the break room and he found a new fountain pen with his name engraved on it. The third was passed to him from his coworker Yamuraiha in passing who claimed to have no knowledge of the identity of the Secret Santa, and it was a novel written by one of his favorite authors. The fourth had seemingly materialized on his desk during his lunch break and contained… a travel neck pillow. Two attempts to get Sinbad to spit out the truth via telephone conversations proved fruitless because the man kept cutting him off with excuses such as having someone waiting on the line and meeting with business partners which, while they could have been legitimate Ja'far found it hard to believe that it seemed like he was… busy.

Busier than usual without him.

This wild goose chase went on all day until the late afternoon when it was time to clock out for the holidays. Before Ja'far did anything else he finally trudged up to the floor above his to confront the older man. Something fishy was going on and he was going to get to the bottom of it. Being the privileged few that could come into Sinbad's office unannounced the freckled man charged in to find the CEO putting on his thick trench coat as he prepared to leave for the night, amber eyes filled with mirth as he looked over his shoulder.

"I'm surprised you didn't get here sooner." Sinbad greeted him with a smile.

"I would have. But you sounded busy every time I called." Ja'far answered, a slight hesitation in his voice as he did so. Sinbad had been expecting him?

"That's because I was." Files stacked on the older man's desk were retrieved and stored away in a nearby filing cabinet as he spoke and Ja'far felt an inner tick within him want to review them before Sinbad actually did it, but it was too late at this point. "Wouldn't want to leave any loose ends before our Christmas getaway to Cancun later this week."

"At least you were being— … Run that by me again?" Did he just say Cancun?

"You heard me! I said we're going to Cancun." Sinbad's grin widened as he breached the distance between them and curled an arm around the younger's lean waist and pulled him closer. "Just the two of us."

Ja'far had to take a moment to get his bearings. "And… when were you going to tell me this?"

"You can call it the grand finale of your Secret Santa's series of gifts." With a gentle squeeze around his lover's waist, Sinbad pressed a quick kiss to the other's lips.

"So it _was_ you." Ja'far murmured after their lips parted, but Sinbad hushed any further retorts with another kiss.

"Did you enjoy your gifts?"

"I do, now that the last two seem to make sense. Although now I feel as though I've fallen short since I don't have anything to give you right now in return." Well, that wasn't entirely true. He had a gift for Sinbad that was waiting under the Christmas tree at home. But he wasn't supposed to open it until Christmas.

"Don't worry about that. All I could possibly want in return is your company to Cancun."

There was a short pause as Ja'far's grey eyes fell to a close, and soon a smile of his own breached his lips as his hands drifted upwards to Sinbad's shoulders. "Seeing as it looks like you're whisking me away at the last minute, I don't have much of a choice."

"That's right, you don't." Fingers combed through silky silver hairs as Sinbad spoke, taking pleasure out of how easily Ja'far's pale skin would stain with color from the heat of their multi-layer clothed embrace. "Now let's get going. We need to start packing so we can leave bright and early tomorrow morning."

And for the both of them, caught up in the throes of the holiday spirit and pre-vacation intimacy, that would be easier said than done.


End file.
